the feelings that we hide | SPENCER REID

08. the big game

A few weeks have past since Vanessa's lip incident. No one beside Hotch had questioned her about it, figuring since she hated when people tried to be sympathetic towards her. Although she loved knowing people cared, the desire made her uncomfortable.

The team were all out tonight, including Aaron's wife, Haley.

Garcia, Hotch, Haley, and Vanessa were all sitting at a table together as Emily came over with drinks.

"Thank you," Nessa thanked with a smile before getting handed a drink. Prentiss gave her a welcoming smile and tossed her drink up for the table to cheers.

"How are they treating you at the BAU," Haley shouted over the music to Emily.

"She means, am I being nice to you?" Hotch added in making his wife laugh.

"Actually," Prentiss started, "Everyone's been incredibly nice!"

"Look at him move," Garcia sighed out while playing with the straw in her drink. Everyone looked over to where the lady was staring, which was Morgan grinding and dancing against 2 women. "He's like a cat."

"More like a dog!" Emily joked causing Nessa to almost spit out her drink.

"He asked them to dance," Penelope defended, "Not him."

Vanessa saw Spencer across the room talking to a couple. He was obviously charming them with his brains and began to become interested at what they were talking about. So she stepped out of the conversation with Emily and them to see what he was doing instead.

Reid had his hands up, something he did when he was either speaking or trying to think of something that wouldn't come out.

"I will not peddle flesh," he said causing the girl to grow puzzled. "I'm a physician." The pairing became amused that he was able to quote whatever he just quoted, their eyes wide. "Drink!"

"Hey, Spencer," Nessa greeted before taking a seat next to him. He gave her a friendly smile and scooted his seat over so she had more space.

"Is this your girlfriend?" The stranger asked.

Spencer and Vanessa both shook their heads immediately.

"Colleagues and friends," Vanessa corrected. "But we've pretended to date once!" She cracked a joke but Spencer frowned thinking back on that day. It was amazing, but it sucked as well.

"How does that work?" The other stranger then questioned.

"Work," Vanessa and Spencer both replied in unison, making them share a look and a smile.

The couple in front of them gave the two confusing looks. If this were seen from other people, they would definitely suspect they were together romantically.

"So what's your name then?" The boy asked.

"Vanessa," she responded. "What ab—" she started again until JJ came and interrupted.

"We have a case," JJ stated before going off to the others.

"FBI?" The dark haired girl questioned as Reid and Vanessa both shook their heads and walked out of the club.

...

The team had a case in Georgia where families were getting murdered. But the twist was that there was always a 911 call before the murder happened. 2 possible unsubs.

When the plane landed, Gideon, Reid, and Morgan went to visit the crime scene while Hotch and JJ went to set up at the field office—Emily and Vanessa heading over to coroner.